When it comes to iPhone applications, The North Face was one of the first action-sports brands to market, launching the original version of its snow report in December of 2008. Since then, the company has continued to add value to the communication tool, according to Nate Bosshard, The North Face brand manager for action sports and outdoors. Bosshard, who has made the app one of his top initiatives since joining The North Face team, says that the brand has gained traction with its technology by focusing less on product and marketing and more on functionality and branding. In a recent AdWeek article, TNF’s iPhone app was called out as one the most successful in the apparel brand category and has been downloaded by nearly 300,000 users since its launch.
We caught up with Bosshard to learn more about what TNF has in store as part of an in-depth look at iPhone applications in our November issue. To read the full report, become a TransWorld Business VIP Member. Take a look at our subscription information page for more details.
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The North Face's Nate Bosshard
The North Face's Nate Bosshard
iPhone apps have been touted as the next “it” technology for marketing and getting customers involved in your community. Would you agree with this?
I would most definitely agree. When we launched in December of 2008, [we] knew that this was the next big thing for marketers, but to what degree was anybody’s guess. We quickly realized that Apple’s iPhone API has unlimited potential and provides new methods of communication and value. Our company was born in the outdoors, so the The North Face Snow Report 2.0 is a logical way for us to share the essence of the brand while truly enabling and enhancing the user’s outdoor experience.
What are the real benefits of this app for you?
When we look at The North Face heritage and innovation, we know our technical product tells a strong story. This is cutting-edge technology presented in a new way that users appreciate and enjoy. It reinforces their recognition of us as innovators.
We’re providing a useful service for free that people can use as much as they need. We are all about enabling exploration and The North Face Snow Report is the convergence of snow and technology. Users can connect with resorts and each other on-the-fly. This is a community of users. They utilize the service several times a day, sharing reviews, checking weather, and updating Twitter feeds regularly.
How much effort does it take to keep it up to date?
I would be lying if I said we had anticipated everything. It’s a lot of work. You can’t just launch an app and think you’re done. Customers expect the application to evolve or it will be considered out-of-date. These programs require constant monitoring, updating, and maintenance. Our app has multiple feeds that it aggregates and to make those all work in sync is no easy feat. We had some bumps for sure but we made a commitment to keep evolving this app to create the best experience possible.
What functionality have you added over that time and what’s in the works to keep people visiting in the summer?
We took all the feedback we received the first year into consideration as we developed 2.0 [and] new features were added as a result. We went deeper with the information on each resort, added 24/48/72 hour reporting, added a global “top 10″ tab for people to see what spots are popping-off outside of their favorite resorts.
Another feature we’re all super excited about is the addition of the global avalanche report. On the weather side we’ve partnered with Weather Underground and onthesnow.com as our main weather services. We found they deliver the most comprehensive weather reporting. We also made sure that it delivers for our global partners by setting up a metric-system default for people who download the application outside of the US.
The biggest innovation for this new version; and a first in the world of apps, is the integration of Twitter as an enhancement to the reporting. We pulled in Twitter’s search API so users can see all conversations happening within Twitter about their favorite resorts without leaving the app. We even took it one step further and separated the conversation between the public and official resort Twitter streams. Users are also able to update their Twitter status from within the app and see what others are saying about their favorite resorts in real time. It’s sweet.
How do you measure the success of the app and has it met your goals?
We’re still waiting for a third party service to be able to quantify ROI for iPhone applications. Until that happens we have had to create our own internal metrics. Originally we said 10,000 downloads in the first year would be success, this week are approaching 300,000. The interaction rate has been off the charts. People are using it multiple times a day and I believe right now we’re the number four Free Weather app in the store. Also, the fact that Apple is featuring The North Face Snow Report in their current TV, print, online and retail campaigns this month is massive validation of the project. We’ve had such a positive response that we have another application in the works that we anticipate to reach even more outdoor users.
